Meet the Author/Illustrator

David McPhail

David McPhail has been drawing since he was two years old. When he was a child, he used to draw on everything from paper bags to walls! Today he lives in the town he grew up in, Newburyport, Massachusetts. He is married and has four children. In The Dream Child, the title character looks very much like his daughter, Jaime. McPhail says he has drawn his children so often that it just comes out in his characters!

McPhail is best known for his animal characters like pigs and bears, in such books as Pig Pig Grows Up and Lost!. He feels that an animal can do things that would be too scary for a child to do. McPhail often visits classrooms. He tells young artists to "draw from life and be true to yourself".

After he finished high school, McPhail played in a rock and roll band.

He writes and draws in a studio in his attic.

He has been a member of the Riverview Pizza Bowling Team in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.